Spinach Dip in a Farmers Market Sourdough Bread Bowl

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I mentioned in my last post that I am going to be shopping my local farmers market regularly. I will be posting what I purchase and how I use each item. In this post I will share with you my recipe for Spinach Dip in a farmers market sourdough bread bowl. This sourdough bread was the first thing I bought on my journey to shop the local farmers markets.

Here in Southern Missouri, I wouldn’t call it the middle of nowhere, though some may disagree. There are not a lot of options when it comes to shopping. We are about 15 miles to our closest town with a Walmart and Aldi. There is a Dollar General down the road. Although, I’m pretty sure even the actual middle of nowhere has a Dollar General. The closest Sam’s Club or Costco is about 100 miles away.

I recently signed up for a Sam’s Club membership. I don’t really have a reason for why I chose Sam’s Club over Costco, it was more of a shot in the dark kind of choice. I hope it works out. My plan is to bulk buy our pantry items and shop for most everything else at the farmers market. Fortunately we do have a lot of farmers in our area. Which means it’s not hard to find a farmers market.

This of course, will probably be a slow process but that’s ok. It’s been a while since I have shopped at a farmers market. Usually, I would go once or twice in the summer and grab a couple of tomatoes. This year I have made it a goal of mine to shop at a farmers market with the intent of replacing items I would usually get at the grocery store. The best news is I want you to come along for the journey.  

For this particular trip I went to the farmers market looking for one specific item. We were hosting people at our house and I wanted to make a Charcuterie style spread for us to graze on throughout the evening. I did this for Thanksgiving and the kids loved it. I think they really enjoyed being able to just pick whatever they wanted off the counter and eat it. I just arrange everything out on our butcher block island top and it makes for a pretty and tasty meal. One thing I have learned as a mom is that kids will eat more when the food looks pretty.

Farmers market sourdough bread compared to grocery store bread

Now, to be fair, this comparison is more about looks and not taste since I could not find a sourdough bread bowl at Walmart.  I went ahead and picked up the Walmart bread because it really shows the difference between home made and store bought. As you can tell in the pictures, the sourdough bread from the farmers market is bigger and looks like a work of art.  

The price for the sourdough bread at the farmers market was $8.00. I paid $1.24 for the bread a Walmart. That’s quite a price difference, but again, I don’t feel like that is a fair comparison since I was not able to find a sourdough bread bowl at Walmart. The bread I picked up at Walmart was labeled Italian Bread Boule. It was a lot smaller than the sourdough bread from the farmers market.

One very important thing I noticed was the ingredients lists. The sourdough bread I got from the farmers market had four ingredients. Flour, starter, water and salt. The bread I picked up from Walmart had a whole paragraph of ingredients, most I have no idea what they are or even how to pronounce them.

When I got to the farmers market I knew I wanted some kind of bread that I could make a bowl out of but beyond that I had no idea what exactly I was looking for. I told one of the vendors what I was wanting to do and she suggested her sourdough bread. She helped me look through what she had to determine which would be the best to make a bowl out of.

On the other hand, at Walmart, talking to an employee about what I wanted never even crossed my mind. I just went to the bakery section and grabbed what they had. It’s not that the employees were rude, it’s just feels more natural to strike up a conversation at a farmers market for some reason.

The farmers market is a more inviting environment to have conversations and get one on one help and advice about the foods that are being sold there. It is a social outing that I very much enjoy.

How I used the farmers market sourdough bread

This was the fun part. As I already mentioned, I used the sourdough bread as a bowl to hold spinach dip. The pieces of the bread that I cut off to make the bowl were used to scoop up some spinach dip. I also had tortilla chips but the sour dough bread was really good with the spinach dip.

I used a knife to cut off the top of the sourdough bread and then I scooped out the middle of the bread to make a hole. I also used a knife to cut around the inside to make the hole bigger so it would hold a lot of dip.

Once I had it the way I wanted, I poured the spinach dip into the bread bowl and placed it on the counter right in the middle of all the yummy food I prepared.

It’s hard to see in the picture but I did use the other bread I bought from Walmart. I didn’t want it to go to waste. I made some guacamole to put in that one.

This spinach dip is very simple to make. My oldest daughter usually makes it for us. The bread bowl is a easy way to elevate the dip and make it feel a little fancy.

I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading.